This issue is sort of strange. It feels extra-sized, with Stokoe resolving his cliffhanger and also One-Eye’s capture. The witch–specifically, her sidekick–rescues One-Eye and then Stokoe develops the team dynamic for the trio. There’s a lot of funny dialogue, maybe more than since the first couple issues. The witch’s sidekick, a living, mean-spirited fluff of…

Funny how Stokoe can have the present action of an issue be fifteen minutes and I can’t imagine anyone would ever think of calling him decompressed or lazy. Maybe because he does the art (and colors and letters) too and the art in this speedy issue is probably more complex than the longer paced ones.…

James Stokoe has such an interesting approach to foreshadowing I wonder if he even feels he utilizes the device. Around the midway point–maybe just a little earlier, but when Orc Stain‘s protagonist wakes up for the first time this issue–Stokoe makes sure the reader pays attention to something the protagonist notices. The protagonist even tells…

Stokoe’s colors might be my favorite thing about Orc Stain. I can’t decide. This issue is so incredibly luscious with the colors–One-Eye runs into a swamp witch who gets ends up getting into this poison battle with his pursuers. The colors in this battle are just amazing–Stokoe utilizes color in a popular comic in a…

Wow, seeing Stokoe do an all action issue is something else. I can’t really think of a more successful such issue (I usually use “all action” as a pejorative), but this one succeeds because of the art. There’s a lot of story inventiveness too–I love how Stokoe makes the orcs and their world really disgusting,…

This issue, Stokoe does quite a bit. Primarily, He introduces a crisis and resolves it. If he ever starts working for the big two, he’ll have to learn he’s not allowed to have an issue with so much content. But he also starts exploring orc culture–especially at the end of this issue, with the orcs…

I’ve been hearing about Orc Stain for a while. But I had no idea what to expect. I knew Stokoe worked hard on the art for each issue, but knowing he inked and colored his pencils himself didn’t tell me anything about the content. I didn’t even know there were orcs in it, not really.…